Don’t Wait for the Crash: How Frequent Recalibrating Can Keep You Feeling Great

12 Mar

Here’s how many of us manage our energy:

Run run run run run. Crash. Go to spa. Feel better. Run run run run run. Crash.

We keep ourselves over-the-top busy, then wonder why we burn out. But there is a way to keep the positive energy flowing steadily:

Instead of waiting until the inevitable crash before taking care of yourself, make small, frequent recalibrations so you never get to that crash in the first place.

For example, make the time to meditate for 20 minutes every evening. Take a hot bath as soon as you feel that telltale tension in your shoulders. Down one of those immune-booster vitamin powder drinks and go to bed early the day the first signs of a cold. Get a massage even if you don’t “need” one to destress. Read a chapter of an inspirational book every morning. Write in your journal before you need it to vent.

This way, your energy level has small ups and downs instead of giant spikes that make you want to sleep for three days straight.

How about you — do you tend to recalibrate your energy often, or wait for the crash and do something big? How has this affected your wellbeing?

Note: I’m open for new personal training clients if you know anyone in the Raleigh/Cary/Apex area who would like to work with a personal trainer. Please have them e-mail me at lindaformichelli@gmail.com or send them to my Personal Training page. Also check out the page to see two new testimonials. Thanks!

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Recording of “The Secrets to High-Energy Living” Now Available

19 Dec

Thanks to everyone who participated in my webinar The Secrets to High-Energy Living! We had a great group who offered very insightful questions and comments.

For those of you who weren’t able to make it, I have a recording up at SoundCloud. The webinar is about 30 minutes long. You can download it or listen to it right on the website.

I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know what you think!

Linda

The Best Smoothie Recipe Ever: Linda’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie

12 Dec

Okay, I’m always telling clients who ask for healthy breakfast ideas about my Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie. So here’s the recipe! The protein in the peanut butter and fiber in the fruit and flax seeds will keep you full for a while. This is the perfect breakfast for people who can’t handle solid food first thing in the morning.

Linda’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie
(Makes a generous 2 servings, or 3 smaller servings.)

* 2 ripe bananas — the riper the bananas, the sweeter the smoothie
* Mixed frozen berries — we like cherries and blueberries (You can also use raspberries or blackberries, but I can’t stand the seeds.)
* 2 heaping Tablespoons natural peanut butter
* 1 1/2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
* About 2 cups lowfat milk

Put the bananas, milk, flaxseed, and peanut butter in a blender and blend until, well, blended. Add frozen berries a little at a time and blend until you get the desired consistency. (You can make the smoothie thick or thin depending on how many berries you put in.) Pour into tall glasses and enjoy!

The Nutty-Sounding Way to Relax and Meditate Better

8 Dec

I was recently reading an article about meditation — I think it was in Yoga Journal — and the writer kept instructing the reader to “Drop your eyes back into their sockets and soften your nose.”

This cracked me up. Soften your nose? What the hell does that mean? It sounded like some new-agey nonsense.

But as I was meditating a few days later, I decided to give it a try. I concentrated on letting my eyes fall back into my head and, well, softening my nose.

Whoa!

First of all, it really did feel like my eyes were sinking into their sockets, and it almost put me into a state of sleep, while at the same time I was still awake and aware. And I never realized until then now much tension I hold in the bridge of my nose and my nostrils. When I relaxed them, my breathing suddenly became deeper and easier.

So I challenge you to try it. Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and then follow these sill-sounding instructions: Drop your eyes back into their sockets and soften your nose.

How did it feel?

How to Eat Healthy While On the Road

5 Dec

We recently got back from a two-week roadtrip from Raleigh to Dallas, which took 40 hours of driving total. (Are we crazy for driving 40 hours with a 3-year-old? You decide.)

One thing we had to worry about every day we were on the road was what to eat. We didn’t want to stop at fast food drive-thrus or rely on gas station snacks. (Ew.) We did some careful planning, and we also learned a lot while we were on the road — and I’m proud to say that we ate well and went to exactly zero fast-food joints.

Here’s what we did, and what you can do the next time you’re on the road, whether you’re on a road trip or you’re on your way to work when hunger strikes:

Go shopping.

I don’t mean to go shopping beforehand, though that’s also important — I mean that instead of stopping at gas stations for an infusion of Cheez Doodles when you get hungry on the road, hit a supermarket to restock your healthy snacks. Our GPS let us search for grocery stores near where we were driving, which was extremely helpful. Most supermarkets were just a few minutes from an exit, which made it just as easy as hitting the gas station. As a bonus, you can stretch your legs while walking around in search of raisins, deli sandwiches, yogurt, nuts, and whole grain crackers and hummus.

And as an extra bonus, many large supermarkets have a Starbucks inside, so you can get good coffee instead of the gas station sludge.

Pack a cooler.

Since we have a 3-year-old who drinks mainly milk, we have a cooler and some freezer packs so we can always carry his sippy cups with us instead of having to search for milk whenever we go out. But we discovered that the cooler can also hold food for the grownups. The freezer packs keep food cold for up to 10 hours.

I like individual servings of cottage cheese, and you can also tote mozzarella cheese sticks, containers of yogurt (don’t forget a spoon!), fruit, sandwiches, baby carrots and hummus, and bottles of water. Check out my blog post on healthy snacks for more portable ideas.

Order right.

If you find yourself starving and with only fast food restaurants nearby, go ahead and hit the McDonald’s or KFC — but think before you order. At many fast food places, the least calorific thing you can get, believe it or not, is a plain hamburger. Some restaurants offer salads, baked potatoes, and grilled chicken sandwiches as well. While fast food fare in general is not the healthiest option, a plain hamburger, salad, and unsweetened iced tea is a lot better for you than a bacon-cheeseburger, large fries, and bucket-o-cola.

How do you eat healthfully while you’re on the road? Do you have any tips or anecdotes you can share?

Free Teleseminar: Secrets to High-Energy Living

29 Nov

Do you have trouble waking up in the morning? Or do you hit an afternoon slump?

Are you too exhausted to even think about exercise?

Do your job and your family leave you feeling bone-tired?

Do you often feel fatigued and demotivated?

If so, you’re lacking physical energy.

Physical energy is the basis for happiness. When you feel energetic, you can take on the world. And physical energy begets the mental energy and motivation you need to reach for your dreams.

To help you become an energy magnet and experience great things in your life, I’m offering a free teleseminar on Secrets to High-Energy Living on Tuesday, December 13 from 3-4 pm ET. I’ll answer questions like:

* Why is physical energy important?
* How does energy tie into happiness?
* Why is my energy so low?
* What are some good ways to gain physical energy?
* How do mood disorders like depression, anxiety, and ADHD affect my energy, and what can I do about it?

There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions via chat at the end of the webinar.

If you’d like to participate in this teleseminar, please sign up here.

About Your Coach, Linda Formichelli

I struggle with depression, anxiety, and ADHD — and yet others say I’m the most productive person they know. I have a thriving freelance writing career (earning most of the income for our family), run two blogs, teach online courses, and have a 3-year-old son, who we homeschool.

To help deal with my mood disorders, for years I’ve been studying health and wellness, with a particular focus on gaining and maintaining physical energy. This issue has been so important to me that this past year, I became a professional wellness coach and certified personal trainer so I can help others with what I’ve learned.

I can now say I truly have the energy I need to get everything done — from writing to housework — exercise, have fun, be more productive at work, and chase around my active preschooler. And I feel great!

In addition, since 1997 I’ve been writing about health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness for magazines like Redbook, WebMD, Health, Women’s Health, Fitness, and Oxygen.

I hope to see you at this teleseminar. Again, if you’re interested, please sign up here.

Thanks, and I look forward to helping you get HappyFit!

Linda Formichelli

How to HALT Negative Feelings

28 Nov

As I mentioned last week in my blog post How Your Health Changes Your Reality, when we’re not feeling our best, it negatively colors our entire life experience. For example, when you’re tired you may believe your friend hasn’t called you back because she’s mad at you — but when you feel great, that same situation has you thinking, “Gee, I’ll bet Dana is really busy. I know she’s been swamped with work.”

In the blog post, I discuss how this fact makes it imperative that we take care of ourselves so our reality will consistently be positive. But what happens when we do find ourselves feeling less than great? Can we rescue our reality?

In wellness coaching, we learn that when we’re feeling negative, we should give ourselves the HALT test:

Am I:

Hungry?
Angry?
Lonely?
Tired?

If you are any of these things, HALT — don’t start navel gazing, wondering why your life sucks or why that stranger gave you a funny look. The results are guaranteed to be bad. Instead, be aware that your thoughts are temporarily negative because of the state of your emotions or your body/health.

Then take steps to remedy the situation. Lonely? Call a friend. Hungry? Have a snack. Tired? Take a nap or get to bed early. Angry? Write a scathing letter to the person you’re angry at, then delete it.

This happened to me just today: I had neglected to take enough snacks to the bookstore, and they didn’t offer any food that was wheat-free (I don’t eat wheat). This was bad news because when I get hungry, I crash — big-time. Shakiness, dizziness, the works. So I thought I was going to lose it when my toddler asked me in an increasingly agitated voice, “What did Lightning McQueen say in Cars 2? No, not THAT part! The part where he was smiling!” And my husband was in my line of fire when he moved like molasses collecting his things to go. Oh, why did the universe suck so much?

But then I remembered the HALT test and admitted that my husband and son were just fine, and as soon as I got some food these earth-shattering grievances would reveal themselves to be minor annoyances. And that’s what happened.

What’s really interesting is that as I was writing this post and thinking about my experience, I saw a short piece in Health magazine about the concept of “hanger,” which is hunger + anger. The article said that when we get hungry, the level of feel-good serotonin in our brains drops, and we’re prone to fits of anger. All the more reason not to go too long without food!

Thoughts, states of mind, emotions, tiredness, illness — these are all temporary, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking the world is over every time you experience them. Remain conscious.

Have you ever let these temporary states take over your existence? What happened, and how did you find your way out of it? Please post your experiences in the Comments below.

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